The nominees for the 63rd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced this morning -- and boy, are they a slap in the face for Broadway.

The Drama Desks recognize Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows alike. They're roughly comparable to the Golden Globes in terms of clout and predictive use leading up the respective industry's big night. And unlike the Tony Awards, which are voted on by producers and other invested parties, the DDs are bestowed by journalists and critics, who have little stake in the winners' longevity.

Essentially, if you mounted a show anywhere in New York over the last 12 months, you could be eligible. Which means a huge show like Mean Girls could be overlooked if a tiny hole-in-the-wall gem mounted a strong case.

Fortunately for Tina Fey, her commercial megahit made the cut for Outstanding New Musical, along with fellow Main Stem occupant SpongeBob SquarePants. But no other Broadway tuner did - including Disney's colossal Frozen.

In fact, Frozen was snubbed almost entirely, garnering a wee two nominations: one (mystifyingly) for Outstanding Actor Jelani Alladin, and one for Outstanding Puppet Design.

Even in the prickly world of New York theater, that's cold.

More jarring still for fans and producers: not a single Broadway production was nominated for Outstanding Play. Yes, that includes Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, the season's biggest bonafide hit.

Potter did garner eight other nominations, most them for design and direction. (Which it thoroughly deserves. The stagecraft of that show is unlike anything ever to grace a Broadway stage).

It's a pretty remarkable rebuke of the season's big offerings by an important awards organization. But to industry insiders, it's not too surprising.

"This season is mostly a snooze-fest," confessed a dispirited Tony-nominated producer, who declined to be named for this piece. "There's no Hamilton, there's no Dear Evan Hansen. There's not even a Come From Away."

While I would argue it's unfair to judge a season by a single buzzy show, (and even if it weren't, it's hard to get buzzier than the boy who lived), it is true that not a single completely original musical opened this season -- they're all based on existing properties or musicians' back catalogues. The current crop just doesn't feel quite as robust as it should.

You wouldn't know it by looking at the box office, however. Relative to last year, the industry's grosses are up almost 15% - an enormous difference, much of it due to the very shows the Drama Desks overlooked.

Honestly, not much. The Off-Broadway season this year was unusually strong, and without those gems mucking things up, shows like Frozen and Harry Potter are almost guaranteed to be nominated for Best Musical and Play.

And given the massive cultural fondness for Potter's universe, you'll be hard-pressed to find a Tony voter who won't at least consider it. They might even vote for it just to spite those snooty Drama Desk critics.